Turning on the Lights response

In his article Turning on the Lights, Marc Prensky makes the claim that schools now days are places of darkness where students are increasingly bored and don't learn as well as they should.  I can understand where this thought is comming from.  this generation that is growing up now has had little time away from the technological world that makes up our modern experience.  They know from a very early age how to use a computer, in short they are born with it.  Where I fundamentally disagree with him is with his discussion on the varrying subjects of education, that is the learing of four thousand year old math (ie. the basics).  I don't think that is the issue.  Kids today are so used to moving at a fast pace that they want everything quick as high speed internet.  you don't become an engineer over night, and if you don't learn the basics you can't be successful at whatever career you choose to pursue.  Prensky uses the illustration of an astronaut having to learn math.  Well yeah, you kind of do need to learn a lot of things that you probably don't want to learn in becoming what you want to be, but that is the nature of the game.  The kids focus on the end result and don't want to do any hard work to get there.

As for the boring factor I agree that technology in the classroom (not to mention some of the older teachers retiring) can liven up things in a way that makes the classroom a more fun place to learn, but to suggest that our current way of teaching things in inadequate and is just making kids bored is not how I would go about it.  It all comes back to the fast pace of the current generation, they don't want to sit through the boring classes, some might find that they are rather interesting.  Ultimately the students need to realize is they are there to learn and not necessarily have fun.  I agree that the school can be a boring place, but in a place of learning it cant always be fun. 

In terms of his section How to Turn on the Lights, I think there is a need for technology in education to stay relevant to the students, and the example that he gives of students making videos that talk about things is very cool for the students, I struggle to understand what they learned of value in that exercise.  As for the Finding out how Students want to be taught section, I agree that a teacher should understand his/her students in that he/she should see how they learn and what works for them best, I don't know that bringing the student in on the process would be very helpful.  If your goal is to educate them then there should be a time and place for their opinions but school is not meant to be a place of opinion only. 

In conclusion I think that Prensky has good motives in his talking about the new kind of classroom that needs to be more oriented to face the future in a way that will be valuable to students.  What he is suggesting may even work for some teachers.  His way is not necessarily the way I would do it.  In my classroom I will make every effort to make the learning process fun, engaging, and even forward looking.  If using technology helps the students to engage in any given subject then that is what I will use.